"God, please not now."
Two weeks had passed by, two whole weeks, and things had only gotten worse for Selena. Selena hadn't seen Xavier even once. As much as she was aware, he was still going out early and coming in late, doing god knows what.
Selena had stopped trying to speak. She didn't care that she was supposed to greet others. She just made sure that she did whatever the others expected her to do. It was like she was running on autopilot. However, deep inside her mind, she was still hopeful that Xavier will see her innocence, so that her mate can once again trust her.
She made sure to wake up early every day, do whatever was expected of her, and keep her mouth shut. That has been her routine. However, the one thing, that no one knew was that at the time when she wasn't doing anything, she was being bullied by Stacy.
In the beginning, it was only Stacy but then slowly, her friends had started taking part too. Selena got food only once a day, so she had become weak. Over that, she worked all day, so she remained tired all the time. Izzy wanted her to fight back, but when Selena refused, Izzy stopped talking to her too. So basically, she had no power to fight them off now even if she wanted to.
None of the leaders knew about this, Stacy made sure to do it whenever no one was around. A few times, some pack members saw them but no one said a word, they were too afraid to go against their beloved warrior. And for those few who did protest, Stacy would spew some shit about how Selena had disrespected their alpha, and they would leave with a disgusted look on their faces.
Selena's hard front was crumbling slowly. Being treated like a monster by someone who is supposed to hate you is still something one can take, but being hated and treated as an abomination by one's own people is worse than torture.
After her time with the hunters, it was the slowest and most painful time of her life. She had lost her will to live. There was no reason for her to wake up every day. Her little light of hope, that she will get her mate back, was also slowly dimming. Will Xavier ever want her again? Will he be able to trust her? After all this... will she be able to trust him?
Stacy had made sure that she attacked every single insecurity Selena ever had...
"You think Xavier wants you after everything you did?"
"You're cheap, used, a traitor, Xavier deserves so much better than you, instead, he's stuck with you."
Stacy always made sure to say these things. One of the reasons was to break her self-esteem; the main reason was to make sure that she didn't fight back, because Stacy knew in her head, that she had no chance against her.
Selena had also heard Stacy often boasting about how she is making progress with Xavier now and that hurt as much as her other words did, if not more.
Selena couldn't find it in herself to not believe this, because often, she'd find Xavier's scent mixed with hers. She didn't cry much about it. She was keeping all of this in, but she didn't know how long.
Right now, while being in the kitchen, Selena was washing the dishes as all these thoughts tortured her mind. Her mind went back to what Xavier had once told her, "You have nothing to worry about. You are the only one I want,"
The words had just reverberated in her mind when suddenly Selena felt like a thousand pins were piercing her body together. It began with pins and then the sensation changed to that of fire. Her whole body felt like she was being burned alive. She started panting as the pain and burn increased throughout her whole body. Selena couldn't understand what was happening, one moment she was all fine and the next she felt like she was being burned alive.
Selena managed to turn the tap off before she crumbled onto the floor. She stayed like that for a while and tried taking deep breathes. She was writhing on the floor for a long time. The time passed by so slow that what was only an hour seemed like more than a few hours to Selena.
Selena was losing her mind. She was almost unconscious by the time she heard footsteps approaching them. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was also shallow. She opened her eyes barely when she heard the sound of footsteps. A pair of black converse came into her view. The feet stopped for a while and Selena heard a gasp before they hurried towards her. The next thing she saw was Ileana's worried face. Selena had started tearing up from the pain and her vision was getting blurred now.
No one had ever seen her cry in this pack. And Ileana was shocked. She dropped to her knees and touched Selena's arms, only for the latter to scream out in pain. That's when Selena opened her eyes wide. She remembered having this conversation with her mother and she remembered her saying, that there is only one kind of pain that increases when someone touches you – heat.
She cursed and groaned. The only one who can help her will be her mate, which obviously won't be happening any time soon. In the three months that she had met her mate, this is the first time she had her heat.
"Selena you're burning!" Ileana exclaimed.
"God, please not now," Selena muttered and curled into a ball as if that will save her from the pain.
Selena was startled next from the sound of the door banging open, in walked Xavier and Ryan.
Both their eyes darkened with one look at Selena making Xavier growled at Ryan. The latter looked away immediately. Xavier didn't care about the situation they were in. No male should be near his mate who is in heat.
Selena didn't want Xavier here. According to her, Xavier hadn't still found it in himself to believe her and she was definitely not taking anything he gives her out of mercy.
"Ileana..." Selena whispered.
"Yes, Selena. I'm right here sis, what do you need?" She answered back in a worried voice.
"I... pl-please can you help me to m-my room. I cannot g-get up," She said. It was clear to every standing there that the girl was even struggling to speak.
"Of course I'll help you to your room. Xavier will carry you there," she replied. Ileana was almost touching her to comfort her but she had also understood the reason. That is why she mentioned Xavier.
"No... No please, I'll walk. Just h-help me a bit please, c-can you?" Selena said looking at her, almost begging her with her eyes. She had also managed to steal a glimpse of Xavier from the corner of her eye. The Alpha looked pained at first, then angry, and left the room fuming. Selena looked away before he left. She kept telling herself that she did nothing wrong. Didn't he hate her?
Selena didn't understand... why the hell was he angry? She knew he didn't want to be anywhere near her. Stacy had made it clear how much he didn't want to see Selena and her companions remind her that at every chance they get. Was he annoyed because he had to come and see her....? Selena just couldn't help these thoughts.
Ileana sighed and finally stood up. Selena hissed in pain when she felt Ileana touch her but didn't pull away, she needed the help.
"Come on," she said and they walked slowly to her room. Some of the unmated males had already gathered around the area and gave Selena lustful glances but Ryan managed to drive them away from her with his glares and growls.
He stood outside the room as Ileana helped Selena lie down on the bed.
"Did you eat anything today?" she asked.
"Yes," Selena lied. She was sure she couldn't swallow anything without throwing up because of the pain and knowing her, if Ileana knew she hadn't eaten in days, she would have force-fed Selena.
"Are you hungry?" she asked again.
"No." I haven't eaten anything for the last week.
She nodded, "Well you have a water bottle here. Will you be okay by yourself?" Selena nodded, she just wanted to be left alone, "Okay, link me if you need anything okay?"
Selena gave her a grateful smile and she left after returning it.
Selena was almost in a state of unconsciousness... she was in and out of consciousness because of the pain.
She had slept continuously for twenty hours, mostly because her condition had left her utterly exhausted. She would have slept even more maybe, but the sensation of the cold fingers rubbing her arms woke her up. It was then she suddenly noticed someone was there in her room, whose face was tucked in her neck, kissing where her mate's mark should have been.
"What the hell?" Selena muttered before she fully realized what was happening, "What are you doing?" she whispered weakly, pushing her hands against the intruder with the little might she had conjured up.
"Don't worry, sweetie. It won't hurt after I finish," a scratchy voice of a man said. He went back to kissing her neck. He slowly moved back and Selena finally saw who it was, one of the warriors, one of Stacy's friends, Scott.
"No, no please move. Just let me go, please! Get off me! Leave!" She said, this time a little louder, but it wasn't enough to wake up the other people in the house. The lack of food and the constant pain was making it hard for her to scream, and the soundproof walls definitely didn't help.
Scott stood up and started taking off his shirt and then unbuttoning his shorts.
"Please... Don't do this. Let go!" He wasn't listening; he started pulling down his shorts.
Her mind was hazed with panic as she saw his blurry image taking his clothes off. She thought her brain had stopped functioning properly because she was sure that she had screamed "NO!" at the top of her voice but it was like it had no effect on the guy. She kept asking herself, what was wrong with her, why couldn't she scream? It felt so weird because for a second that scream baffled her own self as it had seemed so loud, so how doesn't it affect this boy?
The guy took off his shorts and stood only in his boxers. Tears were streaming down her cheeks now. He was hovering over her, supporting his weight on one hand, which also held her hands above her head, he started unbuttoning her shirt with his other hand. Selena was too weak to even get her hands out of his hold when originally she could have easily rubbed his face in the dirt.
What she didn't know was that scream wasn't inside her head. It was a scream of utter terror by Izzy. When she realised that her human was not in a condition to defend herself, she did the only thing that she could.
And right before she screamed, she had opened the mind link to the wolves on whom even after everything, she still had a bit of faith left.
____|~.~|____
Well, things are gonna get interesting now. 😁
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